I thought Steve Martin was the best Oscar host in many years…better even than Billy Crystal. I always liked Crystal but felt that when he hosted, the show — which oughta be about the awards and their recipients — was a bit too much about Billy Crystal. Martin was funny, unobtrusive and managed to treat […]
I haven't seen a copy yet in person but I'm told that The Groo Kingdom, our latest collection of old Groo stories, is now in book shops. If you're collecting these, you'll want to race right out and purchase at least one copy. If you're not collecting these…well, we all do dumb things in our […]
I'm not sure what, if anything, I want to write about Bill Hanna, who died — not unexpectedly — this morning. Like many who will read this, I was reared on Hanna-Barbera cartoons and loved at least the early ones — Huckleberry Hound, Quick Draw McGraw, Yogi Bear, The Flintstones — dearly. And before that, […]
Whenever we write about Las Vegas here, we caution you about trying too hard to save money in that city, as it can lead to extreme discomfort and/or ptomaine. However, if you're egregiously cheap — or if you just want to browse a rather funny travel guide — check out Las Vegas on 25 Cents […]
Wondering what became of Chuck Barris? Here's a link to an article in The New York Observer about the current activities of the man who gave us The Dating Game, The Gong Show and the song, "Palisades Park." (If that link doesn't work, go to the Observer's website and do a search for "Chuck Barris.") […]
I have a new definition of a good interviewer. A good interviewer can grab your interest even when interviewing someone you don't care about, about something you don't care about. By this measure, Bob Costas is a great interviewer. I have next-to-no interest in sports but I've gotten hooked watching his new HBO series, On […]
How secure is your computer? If you'd like to see if someone can hack into it, go to Gibson Research and run the "Shields Up!" test. Steve Gibson is a world-class expert at matters of Internet security and his independent research has forced many software makers to fix loopholes in their products. He has also […]
The latest of the XFL Ratings: Well, we were told they couldn't go any lower than a 2.7 but somehow, they managed. Week #7 got a 2.0 in the overnights, which will probably drop further when the nationals come in. This is less than a fifth of the first week's numbers and less than half […]
That's a picture of Groucho Marx above, not of Frank Ferrante. But you might get the two of them confused after you watch Groucho: A Life in Revue, a special which is running on PBS stations this month. This is the biographical play by Groucho's son, Arthur, and Arthur's longtime writing partner, Bob Fisher — […]
I'm not going to do a real obit column on Morton Downey, Jr., who died the other day because I didn't really (a) know him or (b) like him. Matter of fact, I disliked his on-air routine so much that I wrote a Garfield cartoon in which I parodied the guy. To do the voice, […]
I want to recommend one more book from the McFarland website. It's called The Animated Film Encyclopedia and it's subtitled: A Complete Guide to American Shorts, Features, and Sequences, 1900-1979. That, it is. Its compiler, Graham Webb, has done a terrific job listing every single bit of American theatrical animation — even title and animated […]
Just got a big crate o' books from McFarland Press, which issues a lot of esoteric books, mainly on The Arts, in what are usually limited press runs. One (which gives me the excuse to run the photo at left) is From Beautiful Downtown Burbank (Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In: A Critical History). It's written by […]
Well, if I'd wagered that the XFL ratings would go even lower last Saturday eve, I'd have lost. I didn't expect the network to stoop as low as that promo spot in which an incredibly-cute cheerleader promised a half-time tour of the cheerleaders' locker room. Amazingly, that only boosted numbers .1 over the previous week's […]
The drawing above is the cover of Bugs Bunny and Friends: A Comic Celebration, a paperback collection of old Warner Brothers comic book stories that I helped assemble a couple of years ago. Just thought it deserved a mention here as there's some neat, vintage stuff in there, especially the stuff from the earliest issues […]
Well, things have been fun around here, lately. Yesterday morn, around 2:00 AM, there was a high-speed police-type chase in my neighborhood. It ended on my front lawn with the "suspect" (that's what they have to call the guy who ran from, in this case, the Beverly Hills Police) crashing his car into the front […]